Not "God" but "The Divine"

It seems unlikely that the word, “God,” needs explanation, but there is a lot that we don’t realize about this word today. To start, what word does Jesus use more, the Greek word for “God” or the word for “Father?” He uses both frequently. They are both among his top five most common nouns. “Father,” however, is more common than “God.” Father is the second most common noun on Jesus’s list, used in 191 verses. “God” is number five, in 144 verses. From this, we can guess tht Jesus thought of God more as the Father than as the Divinity.

The Greek

"God" is theos (θεὸς), which means "God," "divine," and "deity."  Obviously, the Greeks used this word to refer to all divine beings. So, unlike the English word, it doesn't refer automatically to "God the Father," as it does in the context of our Christian culture. Unlike us, Jesus lived in a world and spoke to people who knew about many different gods. This word referred to all types of gods, large and small. How did Jesus distinguish the Hebrew God? We cannot tell by reading English translations of his words where the distinguishing word is edited out.

In the Gospels, Jesus usually uses the Greek word with a definite article, ὁ θεὸς, "the God" or “the Divine” to refer to God the Father. Since the Greek article is more like our word “this” (see this article), “this God.” The definite article indicates the Hebrew God as opposed to the multitude of pagan gods.  The definite article was also commonly used before proper names, so it treats theos more like a name than a description.

When I translate Jesus’s words, I translate this as “the Divine,” instead of “God.” This idea captures more clearly what his listeners would have heard. Remember, those of his era did not have the more anthropomorphic vision of God as a father. That idea came from Jesus. They understood the Divine was more as a force, not a person, a verb, not a noun (see below). This is important because pagans saw their gods also as forces of nature, those forces had personalities.

Old Testament Concepts

The Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, often did not use the article before the Greek word for God. So, when Jesus quotes the Septuagint, he follows it exactly, leaving out the article as well. A good example is the first verse in which Jesus uses the word, Matthew 4:4.

KJV: It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

His Listeners Heard: It has been written, "Not upon a loaf alone is he going to live, this person. Instead upon every saying being poured out through the mouth of a God."

This is a quote from t Deuteronomy 8:3. This reference does not use the article, so its sense of this verse is "a god" or "a divine.” In Hebrew, however, the reference is to Yehova,(יְהֹוָה) the unspoken name of God. This is translated most commonly in the English Bible as "LORD" in caps, which is how it is rendered in the KJV.

Yehova means literally "the existing one," from the root hayaw, "to be, become, or exist." This is the name that sets God apart from everything else. It originally comes from the burning bush as hayaw hayaw, which we translate as "I am that am," but which also means something like "being to exist" expressed originally as a verb. (In his own words, God is a verb, not a noun. As a noun, this phrase could be, "the being (or becoming) of existence" or more simply, Yehova, the existing one.

Defining the Divine

In defining what he means by “the Divine,” Jesus doesn't only use the Greek theos, to refer to God the Father. For example, in John 10:35, Jesus uses the plural, "gods" (Θεοί) to refer to ordinary men.

KJV: If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

What They Heard: If those there he proclaimed "divines," before them, the logic of the Divine came into being, and this writing doesn't have the power to be loosened.

He used this line to defend himself against charges of blasphemy for referring to himself as “the Son of the Divine.” Again, he is quoting scripture here, Psalm 82:6. The KJV version, “unto whom the word of God came,” is very misleading. In my more literal translation, Jesus says clearly that the concept or logic (logos) of the Divine came into being (ginomai) from this saying. So the “Divinity” is broader than just the Divinity of the Father God, the creator God. We all can share in His divinity.

Jesus also defines this concept more in Mark 12:27:

KJV: He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: you therefore do greatly err.

What Listeners Heard: No, he is not a god of the dead instead of the living. You are leading yourselves very much astray.

We have to laugh because here the KJV adds a definite article when there is not one in Jesus’s words. Jesus is referring here to an idea that was common in his time, that there was a god of the dead, Hades among the Greeks, Pluto among the Romans, Set among the Egyptians, and so on. This idea is lost in the English translation, which adds the article, "the," which simply isn't there. Jesus distinguishes his Father by saying that he is the Divinity of the living rather than the dead. This, however, is also a play on words since Jesus uses the term “dead” to refer to those spiritually dead as well as those physically dead. The living are those with the spark of the Divine.

God the Father

You may be wondering like I did, how often Jesus uses the words “God” and “Father” together. Since he uses both words very often, you would expect them to appear together frequently. Strangely enough, they don’t. They are only used together in eleven verses. Only eight of these verses connect the idea of the Divine with the Father. The other three refer to other fathers. Considering how often Jesus talks about God and the Father, this surprises me.

In only one of these verses, Matthew 6:8, does Jesus come close to saying, “God, the Father,” but the “God” part only appears in some ancient Greek manuscripts. but it is not recognized in any English translation I’ve seen:

KJV: Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

What Listeners Heard: You certainly don't want to become like them. Since he has seen, [the Divine,] that Father of yours, of what needs you all have before anyone. Ask him yourself.

In many of these verses, Jesus connects his concept of the Father to other people’s concept of God. However, there seems to be a distance between the two. For example, John 8:54:

NIV: If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God:

What Listeners Heard: When I myself recognize myself, that recognition of mine is nothing. He is, that Father of mine, the one recognizing me. Him, you yourselves said that a god of yours, he is.

Notice again, how Jesus says “a god” rather than “the God.” This seems to distinguish between the God that he knew as a Father and the god that they knew, which was more like the gods of the pagans, a force of nature rather than a personality.

Conclusions

The concept of “God” is well-defined today, especially the Christian concept of God the Father. However, in Christ’s era, the Divine was a different concept, less of a person than a force of nature. Pagan gods were also forces of nature, but they had individual personalities and histories. Jesus connected his idea of his Father as a personality with the traditional concept of the Judean Yehova, but he recognize a difference in how others saw the Divine from his more personal view. In recognizing himself and others as sons of the Divine, sharing in divinity, he also saw the concept more broadly than just the Father. We could know the Divine because, if we are living, we have the spark of the Divine within us.